Monday, January 17, 2011

Golumpki!

I still want to spend some time recapping my NYE celebrations, but unfortunately, I don't have time at the moment.

But last night, I made Golumpki Casserole.Golumpki are delicious Polish cabbage rolls, filled with ground beef and rice and mushrooms, and covered in tasty tomato sauce.

I was first introduced to them by my very Polish college roommate. Whenever she would visit home, she usually came back with 3 or 4 golumpki, and she usually didn't want to eat them - so that task fell to me. I was in love.

In 2008, I made them on my own, but HOLY SHIT, it took forever. I couldn't get a handle on the rolling of the cabbage leaves. But they were still tasty.

Lately, I've been craving them again, but I had NO desire to wrestle with unruly cabbage leaves. So I decided to convert it into a casserole/lasagna hybrid.When I tried to google recipes, I came up empty handed, so I decided to wing it.

Preheat oven to 325°1) Core cabbage as best you can, and place in a pot of boiling water for 10-15 minutes.Once the cabbage begins to soften, carefully remove individual leaves with tongs and place on a plate to cool. You will need 12-16 leaves.

2) Brown and drain ground beef.

3) While beef is browning, drain mushrooms, and dice finely (well, I diced finely because Mike doesn't like mushrooms, and they're less detectable this way)

4) Also while beef is browning, cook rice (I used instant white rice).

5) After beef is prepared, add garlic, mushrooms, rice, and about 1/2 can of tomato soup, and let simmer briefly. Season based on your preferences - I added a buttload of worchestershire, and added salt and pepper until I thought it tasted good. Turn off heat. Once this has cooled slightly, add egg and mix.

6) Start preparing your casserole dish: add enough tomato soup to cover the bottom of the casserole dish. Add about 4 cabbage leaves to the bottom, and then add a layer of the meat mixture, then cabbage, then meat, then cabbage. Add more tomato soup to the top of the casserole, enough to cover the cabbage leaves and prevent them from drying out.

7) Place in oven for about 1 hour, or until bubbling.

There you have it.This is half for you, and half for me, because I didn't write this shiz down, and I definitely want to make this again. Mike loved it, and I did too.